Conventionally, consumer price indices are constructed on the assumption that we are observing a stable system of consumer demand, and that all price movements are, therefore, the result of supply-side changes. This often leads to an emphasis on consumer price substitution and to a...

Homotheticity induces a dramatic statistical bias in the estimates of the intratemporal and intertemporal substitutions. I find potent support in favor of nonhomotheticity in aggregate consumption data, with nondurable goods being necessities and durable goods luxuries. I obtain the...

In this paper we examine the role of relative food prices in determining the recent increase in body weight in Italy. Cross-price elasticities of unhealthy and healthy foods estimated by a demand system provide a consistent framework to evaluate substitution effects, when a close association is...

This paper discusses first results of a comparative study of different environmental policy instruments. In a model with pollution as a side effect of consumption different environmental policies are studied. In simulations we observe the dynamic behavior of models with utility functions of the...

This paper studies the applicability of the Marshall-Lerner condition to the "basic" Obstfeld and Rogoff (1995) model. It shows that the Marshall-Lerner condition does apply to this class of models with homothetic preferences when product differentiation across countries is imposed. This paper...

We use a Dixit-Stiglitz setting to show that aggregate productivity fluctuations can be generated through changes in the dispersion of firms' productivity. When the elasticity of substitution among goods is larger than one, an increase in the dispersion raises aggregate productivity because...

This study examines economic performances and household’s behaviours in multiple crops farming in Vietnam. Smallholder farming systems in Vietnam is being transformed by integration between cash cropping and main food cropping operations. This transformation into diversified farming systems...

In Saltari et al. (2012, 2013) we estimated a dynamic model of the Italian economy. The main result of those papers is that the weakness of the Italian economy in the last two decades is due to the total factor productivity slowdown. In those models the information and communication technology...

In Saltari et al. (2012, 2013) we estimated a dynamic model of the Italian economy. The main result of those papers is that the weakness of the Italian economy in the last two decades has been the total factor productivity slowdown. The aim of this paper is to investigate the roots of this...